Earlier this week we hosted a small, dare I say, intimate, media event here at the Naughty Dog studios to show a few more journalists what we’ve done so far on UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves and where we are planning on taking it by the time our game is released later this year. This is only the third group of press who has seen our game in action since we first offered a sneak peek only a few months ago. This group of guests included writers from 1UP, G4, GameSpot, GameSpy, GameTrailers, IGN, Joystiq, Kotaku, and UGO.
The very full day for our guests started off with getting them up to speed on UNCHARTED 2, covering background info on story, gameplay and technology such as:
- The historical mystery surrounding Marco Polo and his lost fleet, which serves as the foundation for our story.
- What’s happened to Drake, since it’s pretty obvious he’s a bit scruffier, down on his luck and he’s definitely running with way shadier people than before.
- Introducing everyone to Chloe Frazer, a sexy and impulsive Australian who is just this side of unpredictable and dangerous, not to mention Drake’s new partner and romantic interest – can you blame him?
- Adding in what we’re calling “action-stealth” to give you the choice to go in guns blazing or take out a few adversaries unnoticed before engaging the rest of them.
- Blending together our climbing and shooting into what we call “traversal gunplay” so you can now be in gun combat in the middle of climbing, swinging on a rope, hanging from a ledge or sign…you can shoot pretty much from anywhere, anytime you want.
- All the cool things the Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 can do now, like pushing way more polygons than before, an overhaul of lighting and shadowing, complex enemy A.I., snow shaders and subsurface scattering, fur shading, new physics engine, audio obstruction occlusion…the list goes on and on and on.
And that’s just scratching the surface of it all.
After all that, we gave our guests a gameplay demo that was followed with a cut scene introducing Chloe, all of which takes place in a fictional war-torn city in Nepal. We also gave everyone who came to our studio something no one else has witnessed yet – playing back our Spike Video Game Awards trailer in real-time entirely within our engine.
Check out all the links below to see firsthand accounts and impressions from all of the online sites who came to our studio to see UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. We also captured a new screenshot that we wanted to share just with you.
- G4 TV – First Look: ‘Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’
- 1UP – Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Preview for the PS3
- GameSpot – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves First Look
- GameSpot – GameSpot Video: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Interview
- GameSpy – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Preview
- Game Trailers – BloodworthGT’s GamePad – Uncharted 2 Mega Blog
- Game Trailers – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – Director Interview Part 1 HD
- Game Trailers – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – Director Interview Part 2 HD
- IGN – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves First Look
- Joystiq – Joystiq impressions: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Joystiq – Joystiq interview: Talking Uncharted 2 with Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells
- Kotaku – First Look At Uncharted 2: Among Thieves In Action
- Kotaku – Uncharted 2 Director Talks Drake
- UGO – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Preview
We’re really excited to show as much of our game as possible. It’s going to be hard to hold back so we don’t give it all away, but I would definitely expect lots more info, screens and, yes, even video of gameplay, to come as we quickly approach our Fall 2009 release date.
The first game was fantastic, cannot own a PS3 without playing Uncharted 1. I know uncharted 2 will be even better, voice actors were great, grafics, controlers, history line, everything, i can say it is a complete game. Lara who???? (tomb what???).
Best regards
can’t wait for this one
@72
I agree Ti_dus! Especially when there are trophies that you MUST play online like GTA4, WipEout HD and Midnight Club: LA.
I mean, I don’t mind just going on there for some fun now and then but to depend on people to first play the mode you want to but to actually complete a mission or objective and have enough people cooperate without being cheap @sses is quite difficult.
But yeah, I haven’t finished the first Uncharted just yet, just picked it up recently, but from what I have played I am VERY impressed with it and to think the 2nd one will look and play just that much better makes me very excited! :D
Oh, and hopefully there is a new Jak & Daxter in the works, and if so, I hope it is more like the first one than the 2nd and 3rd.
Well, even if Drake finds a new romance in Chloe I hope Elena will make a comeback since she was great on the 1st.
I have a question for you guys, since those guys played a Demo; should we expect a Demo soon??
Let me join everyone else here in saying that Uncharted is one of my favorite games of all time. Every time I play through I am amazed at the quality of not just the gameplay but the story and writing. This game rivals the best action movies for dialogue, and the chemistry between Elena and Drake is priceless.
Uncharted 2 has been my most anticipated game since seeing the wonderful ending of the first game. Keep up the great work!
Naughty Dog and Insomniac are the two best developers of the current gen in my opinion!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa uncharted 2, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa that game is going to blow one of my eyeballs aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hey those voice actors have more than A fan! Lol. They are a big part of what made uncharted so great; they really added believability which gave the story a lot of strength and just upped the presentation immensely. The characters are a big part of uncharted and the extremely talented voice actors are what gave them life. Also the way you guys record the voices while you’re mo capping is amazing. I applaud your efforts and eagerly await uncharted 2!
I just hope you guys are putting in some unique game mechanics for Uncharted 2.
Uncharted 1 was basically bits taken from each game thrown together and sometimes not well….So it all ever was “just OK” in my books.
This new feature list doesn’t seem very unique yet so hopefully final product will offer more.
man I CANT wait for Uncharted 2…
But Im absolutely guttered that Elena wont be back.
But Sully MUST return! *SHAKES ANGRY VEINY FIST AT ARNE*
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is one of those underrated games for a console which eventually will build up and enjoy exposure to a more mainstream following. I applaud Naughty Dog and Sony for their courage in investing in new IP’s like Uncharted. I know I’m not the only one who is getting turned off to the industry’s reliance on sequels upon sequels every holiday shopping season. Nathan Drake was a breath of fresh air in 11/2007 and I certainly look forward to part 2 in 2009 (but probably not part 10 in 2020) :P
The first Uncharted was amazing, and this game looks to only improve the already fantastic graphics and gameplay. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, is one of my most anticipated games of the year! Great work Naughty Dog.
Can’t wait to hear more from yall. Loved the first one and most likely this one from everything i’ve seen so far. Keep up the good work.
On a side note. Would yall consider dropping the 2 from the name? It just really interrupts the flow of the title like DF had. You could just say it smoothly with no pauses, which made it work. The 2 just bungs it all up. Thanks for listening, or reading i guess.
Well personally I can’t blame Chloe for liking Nathan *teehee* :D
I can’t wait for Uncharted 2. Uncharted is probably the only game I’ve played like 7 times so far. Crash Bandicoot 2 and Mario 64 are getting close though.
I can’t shake the bad feeling that we no longer hear from Elena Fisher or Skully *sob*.
Indeed as someone mentioned, the voice over in the first game is one of the best I’ve ever heard. It was odd to hear the Prince of Persia being spoken by Nolan North, while North’s voice is literally being burned in my mind as “Nathan”.
I’ve asked many time by E-mail but never received a reply, I’d like to have the original soundtrack of Uncharted, but can’t download it from I-tunes… I’m from Holland and my CC isn’t being accepted, since the soundtrack is only available for the US :-( I hope you’ll release a disc version of Uncharted Among Thieves soundtrack with perhaps Uncharted Drakes Fortune on it as well… *pretty please*.
I was wondering, will you guy working on a Jak & Daxter HD as soon as Uncharted Among Thieves have been released? I really miss that fury friend.
Oh yeah several developers have been my favorites but lost my interest half way, but you guys? You’re my number 1 favorite ever since I bought the PS back in February 1998 and played the demo of Crash Bandicoot 2 nearly dead, until I got the game in hand. CB2 is still my most favorite platform game ever. Of course I’ve got 1 and 3 as well, not to imagine all the other games you’ve released, including… Uncharted!
I beat Uncharted 3 times. I’ve never played a game from start to finish that many times before. I’ve gotten 100% on the trophies. I can’t wait for the new one. Between Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 I’m a happy camper in 09. Will there be more waves of enemies in the new one compared to the first game?
I can’t wait but I have two request.
1. Please make sure we have tons of different skins for the bad guys.
I can’t tell you how boring it got after I killed the same guy 100 times.
2. I know is’t a long shot but after beating the game and getting Platinum trophy there was no reason to go back and play it.
I think it would be cool to have a type of Coop, maybe after you beat the game it unlocks a coop mode. Something like the Zombie mode for COD5 but use the creatures from the first game and make it with you and Eddy!
We showed the press this week how we\’re introducing a variety of enemies that will change the way you engage with them, be it shooting or melee combat.